Words for Wednesday -- Pure Nonsense

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore ...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.

  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

Messymimi, who is supplying the prompts for the Wednesdays of November has given us:

bargain
outlook
belief
margin
differ
wagon
    and/or
outlet
glasses
modest
letter
social
lift

This time around I have written some nonsense text. Once again I'm using the words in the order they were given.

The bargain on the house changed my whole outlook. I was lucky beyond belief, and I even had an economical margin larger that first planned. My wife begged to differ, and would rather had moved into a covered wagon, like the pioneers did.

It turned out that the outlets in the house did not work. I put on my glasses to have a closer look at the Electricity meter, and noticed the surprisingly modest number of units used.

Next day a letter arrived from the Social Security Administration. They had discovered that the house belonged to them, and the day after tomorrow a lift would arrive and carry the house away. We could keep the plot.

Poetry Monday :: Breakfast or FrenchToast

The grumpy, depressed owl has still not flown away. While fighting the Ookie-Pookies (thanks to Messymimi for the wonderful name) I wrote an Elfje, not really in keeping within the rules, so maybe a Not-Elfje? 
For more on Poetry Monday go Here.

Breakfast
Every day
For all of us
Means tea and toast
Not French!

Next Mondays topic: Mittens.

Godt nytår ~ 1. søndag i advent

Same post as the previous, only this time in Danish.
 

 - -🕯- -

     I går gjorde Elephant's Child mig opmærksom på at jeg havde glemt en udfordring i mine opremsninger, nemlig  Sunday Selections. Jeps, den glemte jeg. Og selv om jeg kun deltager af og til, havde jeg faktisk tænkt mig at deltage i dag. Det er nemlig en særlig dag.
     Men lad os først kaste et blik tilbage på ugen der gik:

Mandag - Sneuglejubel og så i solskin. Uglemor var i Hillerød og fik det 4. coronastik og nød turen gennem den sneklædte Gribskov. Men allerede her om eftermiddagen kom tågen rullende, smuk, men varslende om tø. Sneen var da også næsten helt væk næste morgen.

Tirsdag - Denne her fugl sad på en træstamme. Uglemor troede at der var en høg, en falk eller må¨ske en musvåge. Men det var altså en virkelig stor, gammel krage som her det ses.

Fredag - Uglemor på indkøb i Helsinge. Jule"pynten" i byen er tændt, men endnu ikke juletræet.
Klokken er fem minutter over fem fredag eftermiddag.

Søndag (i dag) - Et nypudset vindue. Klokken er halv tolv, og vi har stadig lyset tændt indenfor, man kan se lamperne reflekteret i vinduet. Det er vådt, dunkelt med lavthængende skyer, netop den slag vejr, der er en udfordring for Uglemors humør.
     Ja, Uglemor, du har pusset vinduer. Det er altså en del af dit job, så ingen ekstra point her. Men Uglemor plejer jo heller ikke at fremvise billeder af sine nypudsede vinduer, hun plejer at glæde sig over at der er overstået, og at der nu er et stykke tid til næste gang.
     Men i dag var der altså en særlig grund til at pudse vinduer.

Det er første søndag i advent. I dag starter et nyt kirkeår, og vi begynder på vores advents-vindues-kalender.

Godt nytår allesammen!

Og så vil jeg da lige gøre reklame for Jessetræet.
Jeg har som sædvanligt opdateret min BLOG om denne bibelske vandring gennem adventstiden.
Der er også et link i billedet øverst til højre.

Sunday Selections ~ New Year's edition

Dette indlæg vil som noget nyt blive udgivet på dansk lidt senere i dag.
 

 - - 📷 - -

YesterdayElephant's Child kindly told me that I had forgotten one of the recurring challenges: Sunday Selections. Yes I forgot. Now to remedy this:

Monday - Sunlit SnowOwlHappyness - but as seen from this photo the fog comes rolling in, and this means thaw. Tuesday the snow had already melted again.

Tuesday - This big crow sat on the old stump making me think it was a buzzard or a hawk, but it was - as seen here - an old crow.

Friday - MotherOwl went shopping, and the Christmas garlands in town were lit - but still not the Christmas tree. Photo taken five minutes past five in the afternoon.

Sunday (today) - A newly cleaned living room window. Half past eleven, outside are drizzle and low cloud, which I always find to be a challenge. You can see the lights burning as a reflection in the newly cleaned window.
Yes MotherOwl, you cleaned the window, but if you want praise for cleaning windows, which is rightly your job, expect to be disappointed. Nether is it normal for MotherOwl to take photos of newly cleaned living room windows. They are cleaned from time to time, as is everybody else's, MotherOwl is moderately proud of the results, but more happy to have it behind her.
Today there's more reason behind the cleaning.

It is the first Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical year.

Happy New Year everyone!

Z~A :: Zip through Autumn 8

The A ~ Z Challenge's baby brother, the Z ~ A Challenge*)  is here again. This time with the prompts

Nov 23- Nov 29 ~ Happy Habits, Goal of your blog for remaining 2022

Happy Habits: Writing this blog is a Happy Habit, it keeps my creative juices flowing, it puts a mild pressure on me with the recurring challenges,  Words for Wednesday every Wednesday, Poetry Monday every Monday (Hello, Capt'n Obvious) and IWSG every first Wednesday of the month. Now and then other challenges come and go: Reading challenges, drawing challenges, photo challenges, I like them all, but my compliance is nothing to boast of.

Goal of your blog for remaining 2022: They are easily told. I go for simple goals in my blogging life:
- To blog every Monday, hopefully with a poem.
- To blog every Wednesday with a story using some or even all the prompts given.
- To blog on the first Wednesday of December using the IWSG prompt.
- To blog in between these days when I have something to say or show.
- To wish everyone a Merry Christmas when the time is right, and
- To end this year's blogging wishing all my readers a happy New Year.

- - 💡 - -

*)
Zip through Autumn:
Here's a link and the list of dates and prompts. So if you care to join, get on board.

Sept 21- 27 ~  Zero excuses, Yearn to
Sept 28- Oct 4 ~ Xenodochy in blogging, Why blog
Oct 5- Oct 11 ~  Variety, Unique to my blog
Oct 12- Oct 18 ~ Ten-year plan, SMART goals
Oct 19- Oct 25 ~ Recommend, Questions for visitors
Oct 26- Nov 1 ~ Priorities, Open
Nov 2- Nov 7 ~ Never blog this, Motivating
Nov 9- Nov 15 ~ Lesson, Know where I've been
Nov 16- Nov 22 ~ Joy and Job in blogging, Ideas
Nov 23- Nov 29 ~ Happy Habits, Goal of your blog for remaining 2022
Nov 30- Dec 6 ~ Fortitude, Easy tips
Dec 7- Dec  13~ Dare, Chance
Dec 14- Dec 20 ~ Balance, Achievements in 2022

Fredagsfrustration :: Digitalisering og centralisering af forretninger

Friday Frustration :: Digitalisation and Centralisation of Supermarket Chains

Efter at være flyttet tilbage til Danmark fra Tyskland, hvor vi havde tilbragt et år, blev jeg begejstret, da Aldi og Lidl - to tyske supermarkedskæder - åbnede i Helsinge, den ene, Lidl, næsten inde i centrum, den anden, Aldi, et stykke udenfor byen ... nu kunne vi få meget af det, vi savnede fra Tyskland. Gode pølser, sært syltetøj, slik, kager, yoghurt i bøtter, fyldepenne, adventslys i fire forskellige højder, julekort med krybber og engle ... masser af sære ting.
     For nogen tid siden var jeg i Aldi igen. Jeg kommer der ikke så tit, for der er vel en kilometer derud til fods - og kiggede efter julekager, juleslik og en hel del andre varer, jeg plejer at købe der. Deres Stollen (tyske julekager) var de samme gode, som de også havde haft de foregående år. Men deres øvrige udvalg var væsentligt mindre igen i år. Og så var det præcis det samme som jeg havde set i Netto, Lidl og Rema1000 inde i byen. Sådan havde det også været til halloween og til oktoberfest. 
     Mit yndlingsslik var udsolgt, og jeg spurgte en medarbejder, om det mon kom igen. Det kunne han ikke sige, for varebestillingen var nu digital og centraliseret. Han kunne ikke se, om det kom, eller bestille hvad, der skulle komme. Jeg købte Stollen nok til hele julen og gik igen.

    Forleden var jeg så Aldi igen - jeg havde et ærinde i nærheden og ville lige se, om mit yndlingsslik skulle være kommet - men gik skuffet ud af butikken med en tom kurv. Mit yndlingsslik var ikke kommet, og den der lap med varenavn og pris var fjernet - det betyder normalt at varen er udgået.
     Så gik jeg en runde og kiggede på slagtilbuddene, de faste varer og sæsonvarerne, og konstaterede, at Stollen (de der tyske julekager) var den eneste vare, der var anderledes her, end i resten af byens butikker (af dem, jeg køber, naturligvis). Alle de andre sære, tyske varer, jeg havde købt der gennem årene, var enten udgået eller erstattet af billigere, dårligere produkter, mestendels fra andre lande end Tyskland. Og Stollen  havde jeg jo allerede købt sidste gang, jeg var der. Så nu kan jeg vente et helt år med at handle der igen.

-- 🛒 --

After moving back to Denmark from Germany, where we spent a year, I was thrilled when Aldi and Lidl - two German supermarket chains - opened in Helsinge, one, Lidl, almost in the centre, the other, Aldi, a bit outside the town ... now we could get much of what we were missing form our stay in Germany.

Some time ago I was in Aldi - I do not go there often as I have to walk about a kilometre to get there - looking for Christmas cakes, sweets and a lot of other things I usually buy there. The Stollen (German Christmas cakes) were the same good ones as they'd had in previous years and I bougth some. But for the rest the selection was significantly smaller. And the Christmas candies etc. were exactly the same I had seen in the other supermarkets in town. It had been the same for Halloween and Oktoberfest.
Some of my favourite candy were sold out, and I asked an employee if they were coming back. He couldn't say, because the stock was now digital and centralised. He could see neither if it was coming, nor order what was to come.

A couple of days ago I went to Aldi again  - I had another errand close by and wanted to see if my favourite candy had returned - and left the store disappointed with an empty basket. My favourite candy hadn't arrived and that piece of plastic with the item name and price had been removed - this usually means the item is out of stock. I then went for a stroll up and down the aisles and looked at the special offers, the regular items and the seasonal items, and noticed that Stollen (those German Christmas cake) was the only item that was any different from what was on offer in the town's other supermarkets  (from items I buy, of course). All the specific German stuff I went there to buy were discontinued or replaced by low-quality items mostly of non-German origin. And as  had already bought Stollen the last time I was there, I can now wait a whole year to go shopping there again.

Words for Wednesday -- November 23 -- The long Saturday 8

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore ...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.

  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

Messymimi, who is supplying the prompts for the Wednesdays of November has given us:

Push
Leash
Shelf
Help
Talk
Mail

And a wonderful picture of a secret garden
.
This time around I'm not using the words in the order they were given, I'm not even using many of them, only talk and tell. .
And this chapter is more tell than show - it is a kind of brain dump, I needed to write down what  happened during that very long Saturday. Finally I found another title than Á Íslandi, and I have corrected the title on the old chapters. 


Finally the brooms were all ready, the racetrack was cleared, lunch had bean eaten here, there and everywhere, and if anybody was hungry it was their own fault for having forgotten their manners when talking to the Nisser. Nothing really terrible had been handed out though, only bland sandwiches and bitter tea.

***

Hilde, Rasmus, Fiona and Finnbogi returned from Trømsø, laden with things from Liisa's cubicle at her job and from various hideouts in their house. The news were bleak, she was getting weaker by the hour, and Rasmus wanted to return to stay at her bedside.
"I have to be the good husband to all outer observers," Rasmus said, "I will return as soon as possible, but right now my place is at Liisa's bed. It is a strange feeling, that someone you knew and loved is ... not what you thought. I have much to think over during my vigil."
"You're rigth," Hilde said. "As much as we'd like you to stay here, it would be strange if you did not stay at her bedside. Our thougths and well wishes go with you."
"We'll refrain from touching any of what we found until you return," Finnbogi said. "Is it wrong of me to add ... and might it be soon?"
"No, I don't think so," Rasmus said soberly. "There's no hope for a cure, and even should she return to health, her presence would just give cause for even more problems and inconvenience for all of us."
In the end almost everyone had signed up for the broomrace, and those that had not, came to Knud and asked to be written on the list anyway. Thus all the magicians at Birch Manor ended up racing against one another, excepting only Rasmus who was in Trømsø.

***

Martine was the one starting the races.
The first races were simple, all the grandchildren able to fly were sent off five and five after approximate size and prowess. The winner of each group were given a small prize and set to race against one another.
It came as no surprise to anybody that Emil, Fiona's oldest grandkid won the race with Mary in the second place, much to her chagrin. She had fully expected to win. Marit and Jans grandkids, Mads and Mikkel who were identical twin, shared the third place.

Then it was the children's turn, grown up men and women in their late twenties, thirties and forties, none of them having sat on a broom for more than a few, inadequate weeks were tried the same way as their children.
Of course once again one of Fiona's progeny triumphed. Stine, her youngest daughter, won the race, only just beating Trine, her older sister and mother of Emil. Number three was a big surprise, Susan and Knud's youngest son, Peter, who no-one even had thought of betting on.
Otto, Fiona's equanimous and nice, non magical husband almost lost his voice from cheering him on.

After a break, where the Nisser served wonderful cakes and tea and coffee even better than Knud's best, the apprentices stood ready at the starting line.
My, Fiona, Hilde, Marit and Jan opened the race with Fiona as the logical bid for a winner, and she lived up to the expectations, leaving all the rest behind, even if Marit and Hilde did their very best.
Susan and Knud had been persuaded into participating with all the old apprentices. Enough non magical spouses were around to serve as referees and line watchers.
So Susan and Knud were at the starting line together with Helge, Finnbogi, and Tage. Finnbogi and Tage quickly took the lead with Susan and Helge far behind and Knud fighting a loosing battle to keep up with the two in front. In the end Finnbogi overtook Tage, who as a gentleman let him pass and win.

The third heat held a couple of surprises. Lis, Heidi, Rósa, and Anna were expected, but two more stood ready at the line, Martine and Aamu, shakingly holding on to her broom and supported by her husband Uwe and Daniel, her son. Only Uwe, Daniel and Susan knew that she had decided to accept her magic, and had touched Susan's old skirt only hours before the race.
Estrid, who quietly had taken over the flag from Martine, swung the flag, and off they soared. First Finnbogi had the lead, then Anna went up and over him in a fine racing manoeuvre, then Rósa did some sneaking up and were in front, until Aamu, having found her old form overtook her shortly before the finishing line. All stood up clapping and yelling, and then Martine showed her style and stamina.

Aamu was overtaken by only a couple of inches on the line. All clapped and shouted even louder and Helge and Knud yelled and rung a bell to bring order in the chaos once again.
Uwe, Daniel and Aamu were embracing, and Susan and Anna helped Martine off her broom.
More cakes and hot drinks were consumed before the final race.

Fiona, Martine and Finnbogi inspected their brooms, wiped down the handles and made ready for the final battle.
"Finally," Martine said with a warm smile, "Finally I get to see if still have it in me. Don't hold back. Let the best man win!"
"I only wish Sif and Elvin were her as well," Finnbogi said.
"Then you would not have stood a chance," Fiona said, looking a Finnbogi with a challenge in her eyes.
"You're probably right, but I would gladly lose every race forever to have them here," Finnbogi said.
The defiant glitter died in Fiona's eyes. "So would I ," she said. "And Veronika too."
"Get ready!" Helge called and they grasped their brooms and went to join Martine at the starting line.
For the last time that day Estrid swung the flag and Fiona and Finnbogi swung their legs over the brooms, Marit loosened the grip on Martine's broom, and as Estrid dipped the flag they went off.  It was the best broomrace ever flown in Denmark, it was close, very close for a long, long time, but then Martine's mastery and experience told and she slowly, inch by inch went in front. She turned and twisted the broom in her hands, ending up with the straws in the same position, that had earned Fiona the victory at Unicorn Farm. Too late Fiona realized what Martine was doing and emulated her. But her extra speed burst came too late, and Martine passed the finishing line just before Fiona overtook her.
"You won!" Fiona said, "fair and square. I forgot that trick you taught me... "
"And I remembered," Martina said smiling and leaning onto Marit's shoulder.
The ceremony was everything a ceremony of this kind should be, festive, friendly, funny and not too long. They ate, drank and celebrated far into the night. Martine took her leave at around ten o'clock. she was tired after the day's celebrations, and wanted her beauty sleep.
Aamu was the centre of much attention, almost everybody wanted to hear how and why she had decided to accept her magic again. She told the story of the portals, and repeated Daniel's words of magic books over and over and each time ended by adding that she wanted to live as normal a life as possible, only with magic. Continuing as a librarian in Schiltach, leading reading circles and baking German cakes. Uwe, her husband, spent much of the evening in the company of Eyvind Haugen and Otto Sørensen, Hilde and Fiona's non magic husbands.  

***

Next morning, as breakfast was served, Martine did not show up. Susan went and looked for her. She lay in her bed, a slight smile on her face and both hands clasped around the small gold medal from yesterday's broom racing. Susan placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to wake her up, but pulled back immediately. Martine's shoulder was cold to the touch and stiff. Susan felt for a pulse, and was not surprised not to find any. She then found a small mirror on the bedstand and hold it up to Martine's face. It did not mist, not even the tiniest bit.
"She's dead." Susan said under her breath, "May God have mercy upon her soul." She looked back at Martine. "At least she died happy."

Susan went down to the hall where almost everybody else were having breakfast, She told Helge, Knud, Fiona and My who sat together at a small table about what has happened.
"Do we have to call for an ambulance and so on?" Susan asked, "she is very obviously dead and has been for long, probably since yesterday evening."
"Don't you have a house doctor?" Fiona asked. "Then call him," she said as Susan nodded.
"Her, it's a woman doctor," she said and rose. "I'll go and call her. No need for a grand alarm I think. We keep to our normal ruse, Reunion, Harry Potter theme, and so on."
Susan returned very fast: "The doctor agreed to come over and do what has to be done - this includes writing a death certificate. It seems not to be a very complicated matter. I'm relieved about this, we do not need more drama!  ... And I saw Martine's face ... she died happy, smiling, clutching her medal."

The doctor came, and Susan told of the reunion turned family gathering, the magic, Harry Potter themed week, and showed her to Martine's bedroom. The doctor examined her, and turned to Susan. "Who's her next of kind, and can you provide me with the CPR number, address, full name and so on?"
"I don't know of any family," Susan said according to truth. "She was our teacher at the 4H school - the one we're having the reunion for - and we found her two years ago looking for old pupils, not really expecting to find any of the teachers, for our 25th jubilee. She comes from Norway, but has lived in Denmark for over 30 years. When we found her, she was at a home in Funen, and we had just bought this big place, so she moved into the gardener's old house. She needed help, but not much, and even if it was a good home, a real home with a garden and a family was way better."
Susan had risen while she talked and now opened a drawer and handed the doctor the relevant papers.

The doctor sat down at Martine's table and filled out the death certificate. "At 82 we need no autopsy or anything. It was most probably a heart failure or a massive bleeding in the brain that killed her. I can see the tell tale signs. But I take it you want her body stored in the mortuary until you can arrange a burial?"
"That would indeed be practical," Susan said. "How do we arrange for that?"
"I do," The doctor said. "An ambulance will arrive later today for her body. You may wash or dress her if you like, but she looks so happy. And holding that gold medal."
"Yes, one of our pretend games of magic," Susan said "She won our broom racing contest yesterday."
"You do not sound sad," the doctor added. "Are you?"
"No ... yes .. err" Susan said. "I'm going to miss her, terribly so even. She was old, wise and always cheerful. Like a super grandma. But she has had two busy, filled years here, she died happy, without suffering, without growing weak and frail. It's not a bad way to go, I think."  
"No, it's not," the doctor agreed. "I'll leave one copy of the certificate here with you - you'll need to show it to the ambulance folks, to the undertaker and so on. I'll take the other copy and do what have to be done digitally when I am back in the clinic. Then she'll be legally dead. You'll have to search for any family of hers. An add in the relevant Norwegian paper will do."
"Thank you," Susan said. "May I see you out?"
"Please," the doctor said and smiled. "This is a wonderful place you live in."


Now I have to ask any reader reaching the end some questions.
- Is Martine's death an OK thing to happen here.
- Am I killing off too many people? First David/Walther, now Martine and soon Liisa.
- I think they are getting too dependent on Martine in particular, I need them to stretch their own wings, but I feel bad about killing her. What do you say?

Z to A :: Zip through Autumn ~ 7

The theme for the Z to A challenge*)  for the period of  November 16 - November 22 is

Joy and Job in blogging, Ideas

For me blogging has never felt like a Job. The closest it come to feeling like a job, is when Monday morning dawns, and I realize that once again I do not have a poem to share. But mostly this solves itself while bathing, biking, baking or walking, so that by evening poeming has happened.

Blogging is for me mostly a source of Joy, an outlet for all my crazy writing, a way of sharing what makes me happy, sad, or angry with a lot of nice people, I never ever get to see. This is a great Joy because I have 'met' so many friendly, encouraging and different people with ideas and homelands quite unlike my own.

Ideas: Sometimes I miss Ideas, but then either somebody shares a challenge like this A-Z one, Poetry Monday, Words for Wednesday, or any of the other more or less successful challenges I have been a part of throughout my blogging life, or I see hear or encounters something that makes me happy - like snow, flowers or family - or frustrated - like election posters or buses and their missing timetables.
And no matter what I write or share ...  you - my dear readers - always stand ready with comments, suggestions, praise and criticism. If anything, I miss a bit more of the latter, I know my English is far from perfect, and that I need to improve.

- - 💡 - -

*)
Zip through Autumn:
Here's a list of dates and prompts. So if you care to join, get on board.

Sept 21- 27 ~  Zero excuses, Yearn to
Sept 28- Oct 4 ~ Xenodochy in blogging, Why blog
Oct 5- Oct 11 ~  Variety, Unique to my blog
Oct 12- Oct 18 ~ Ten-year plan, SMART goals
Oct 19- Oct 25 ~ Recommend, Questions for visitors
Oct 26- Nov 1 ~ Priorities, Open
Nov 2- Nov 7 ~ Never blog this, Motivating
Nov 9- Nov 15 ~ Lesson, Know where I've been
Nov 16- Nov 22 ~ Joy and Job in blogging, Ideas
Nov 23- Nov 29 ~ Happy Habits, Goal of your blog for remaining 2022
Nov 30- Dec 6 ~ Fortitude, Easy tips
Dec 7- Dec  13~ Dare, Chance
Dec 14- Dec 20 ~ Balance, Achievements in 2022

Poetry Monday :: No Thankful Edition

 Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who supplies us with many of the topics - are also writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read them!
  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month!
  SpikesBestMate often publishes a nice verse in the comments.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey who earlier was a faithful participant, had slowly been returning to blogging after her husband's passing from this world and her mum's faltering health. Now it's a while since we heard from her, so send a prayer, some good vibes or kind thoughts her way, please!

There'll be no poem from me this Monday. Every time I try, an ungrateful, grumpy, pessimistic black Owl of Doom presses the wrong keys on my keyboard.

- - - - -
Next Mondays topic: French Toast or Breakfast

Sneuglejubel :: Snow Owl Happyness

 I morges så verden sådan ud.
In the morning the world looked like this.

Kardebollerne på terrassen - som jeg fangede i et smukt øjeblik tilbage i juli - var også fulde af sne.

The wild teasels - which I last showed off back in July - also had their snowy moment.

Jeg elsker sne!   -- ❅ --  I love snow!

Fredagsfrustration :: Byens juletræ!

Friday Frustration :: Christmas Tree Edition

I 2016 skrev jeg om det grimme plastikjuletræ i Helsinge. Nu er det væk, men i stedet har vi dette her.
Et billede sige mere end tusind ord, så væsågod.

In 2016 I agonized over the ugly plastic tree in Helsinge. Now we've got this one instead.
A photo says more than a thousand words.

At strikke blade -- Knitting Leaves

I den selv samme husflidsforening hvor jeg var på udstilling sidste weekend, mødes nogen af medlemmerne og strikker og snakker. Forrige gang havde en af de andre fundet et fint bladmønster på nettet. Jeg blev vild med det og bad hende sende mig billedet. Det var fra Pinterest, og jeg generer nok ikke nogen ved at gengive det her.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

The Crafters' Guild having the exhibition, I told of, also have different groups meeting for their members. I am a member of the knitting group, and at the meeting just before the exhibition one of the other ladies showed us a leaf knitting pattern she had found on Pinterest. I asked her to send me the pattern, as it fascinated me. I do not think I do anything wrong by showing the picture here.

Strikkede blade fra Pinterest
Knit leaves from Pinterest

Aftenen inden udstillingen sad jeg med ternet papir og blyant og tegnede mønsteret af og på udstillingen strikkede jeg af og til på det, når mine fingre ikke var i form til mere theposefoldning. Det gik naturligvis ikke godt, der var mange besøgende, og jeg måtte hele tiden lægge strikketøjet fra mig for at fortælle om plantefarvning, papirfoldning elle de udstillede strikketing.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

The night before the exhibition, I found pencil and paper and drew up this pattern. During the exhibition I occasionally knit when my fingers needed a break from folding tea bag wrappers. It was not very smart, as we had visitors, and I had to interrupt my knitting to demonstrate tea bag wrapper folding, tell about plant dyes or about the knitwear on the exhibition. A small octopus was a great attention grabber.

Vores strikke- og plantefarverstand med sprutten til venstre
Our knit and plant dyers' booth with the octopus front left.

Søndag aften - efter udstillingen - tog jeg et par billeder af de strikkede blade før jeg trævlede det hele op igen, det var fyldt med fejl.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

Sunday night after the exhibition I took some photos of the knitted leaves and frogged it all, too many errors!

Bladstrik første forsøg

Knitting leaves, first try

Garnet kom selvfølgelig fra min uudtømmelige tønde.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

The yarn of course came from my bottomless yarn barrel.

--- --- ---

Så strikkede jeg noget mere, og trævlede så meget op, at Farfar begyndte at kalde mig Penelope. Men der bliver trods alt strikket mere, end der bliver trævlet op, for nu har jeg en hel vante at vise frem, og en til undervejs. De to vanter er ikke ens, så enten må jeg trævle op igen-igen eller simpelthen strikke en tredje vante.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

Then I knit some more and frogged some more. So much frogging happened that The Walrus began calling me Penelope. But still more knitting happened, as I now have one whole mitten and one half to show for all my work. They are not alike, So one of them will once again be frogged - or I'll just knit mitten number three.

Den første vante, der er blevet trævlet helt op
First mitten - has since been frogged

Den første færdige vante. Spidsen skal trævles op, hvis ikke hele vanten

The first finished mitten. The top at least will be redone if not the whole mitten

Et par dage inden havde en sød nabo vist mig noget herligt tykt garn. Jeg havde været inde og købe noget i en lidt anden farveholdning. Og efter strik gik vi ned til naboen, der holdt garnudsalg. Der lå det perfekte grå nøgle at kombinerer med.

-- 🍂 🧶 --

Some days earlier a nice neighbour had shown me a gorgeous, thick yarn on sale. I had bought some in another colourway and after the knit-meet we went to a yarn shop next door celebrating birthday and having a sale. I found the perfect grey yarn for a mix.

Flotte farver
Pretty colours

Words for Wednesday - The Long Saturday 7

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore ...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.

  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

Messymimi, who is supplying the prompts for the Wednesdays of November has given us:

tap
dump
basic
push
favor
lesson
     and/or the following phrases:
a day late and a dollar short
my cup of tea
a home bird

She furthermore says: "These prompts are suggestions to get you started, feel free to use some, all, or none, it's the creativity that counts."

As is my wont, I continue the story of Susan and her fellow magicians, and use the words in the order they were given - only I did not use a day late and a dollar short or my cup of tea

Helge sat down. He looked around, and all the others looked back at him. Estrid said: "I have scrubbed the small cauldron, it's clean as clean can be. Any more things that needs a scrubbing now I am at it?"
"Yes, actually," My said. "Elanor and I found that this recipe calls for some other rarely used utensils. Elanor could you show Estrid where they are hidden, while I bring Anna and Helge up to date with what we discovered. And if you could have those four nuisances help you find the ingredients, we'll be ready to brew the potion in next to no time."
"Will do," Elanor said, "Come on, Estrid, Let's leave the brainy ones to their thinking, and let's do the hauling around."

As they crossed the yard, they could see that they were not the only ones hauling and moving things around.
An obstacle course for broom racing was taking shape in the meadows, and chairs, benches and tables were placed for spectators and judges to sit on.

They returned, laden with old utensils and bottles, bags and bundles of strange ingredients for the potion. As they returned, My and Helge barely looked at them. My just pointed at the counter and Helge nodded appreciatively at Estrid, who began scrubbing the grimy utensils.
Soon after Anna returned with her hands full of herbs, leaves and flowers. "I do admire what Susan and Knud had done here," she said, "this garden is as well stocked as you could only wish."
"And so are the store rooms," Elanor said. " I think we found everything."

A bit later My and Helge aroused from their murmurings and put them all to work:
"Elanor, can you measure half a litre of plain water from the tap?" My asked, and Elanor took the measuring jar and filled it with plain water.
"This potion calls for tap water," Helge said, "as far as I remember this is very unusual."
"It is," My agreed. "This one is one of only two or three recipes to do this."

Estrid suggested that she, and Nora and Markus went to get the brooms. "it will be quicker than carrying the finished potion to the brooms, and by the way I think some of them are still in the big crate they came in. "We'll come too," Andres said. Looking at those two brewing, is not fun, and I know where the crowbar is!"
"Invaluable knowledge, I agree," My said "Off you go. Helge, Elanor and I can handle this."

Helge and My gave Anna and Elanor short, but clear instruction, they cut, counted and dumped strange ingredients into the spotlessly clean smallest cauldron. Then Helge carefully picked up the equally spotless wooden spoon made from ancient oakwood, and scrubbed by Estrid; he stirred thoroughly and vigorously while My said some basic incantations. And suddenly the potion changed colour to a bright, almost golden yellow. "This is it!" My exclaimed, while Helge just smiled. Anna and Elanor looked into the pot and Elanor said: "It smells adventurous."
That's a good description," My said nodding, and Helge smiled a tentative smile, which made his face much nicer.
The four kids and Estrid arrived pushing a parcel cage overflowing with brooms.
"Oh, this smells good," Andres said. "I feel like doing something big!"
 
"Now," My said. "Now it's time to get those brooms anointed and awoken. But first, Estrid please do me a favour and open the window before we begin flying as well. We have learned a lesson here. Don't brew flying potions with the doors closed."
 Estrid opened the windows wide, and My and Helge handed out paint brushes and showed how to anoint the brooms. Quickly they found the easiest way of doing it, Helgi and Nora, the two oldest and tallest took the brooms from the cage, Anna stood with a broom in each hand while Andres and Markus painted the potion on them and My and Helge spoke yet another incantation over each broom. Finally Estrid and Elanor carried the brooms to the other door. Soon Elanor whispered a hasty message to Estrid, and left to return with Martine and Fiona.
They made happy noises upon seeing the brooms and soon had them all up and flying. It was a sight to see, the brooms followed Martine on her broom, and Fiona walking ahead down to the meadows like so many ducklings in a row.
"Oh, I feel sad for Monica and Olav. Those two home birds!" My said. "They would have loved seeing this."

Poetry Monday :: Pickles

Today it's Poetry Monday once again. The theme: Pickles!

- :: -- :: -- :: --

 Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - and Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings - who supplies us with many of the topics - are also writing wonderful, funny, thought-provoking, ingenious and honestly well written verse. Go and read them!
  Karen of Baking in a Tornado has joined us in this crazy pursuit, and promises us at least a poem a month!
  SpikesBestMate often publishes a nice verse in the comments.
  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey who earlier was a faithful participant, had slowly been returning to blogging after her husband's passing from this world and her mum's faltering health. Now it's a while since we heard from her, so send a prayer, some good vibes or kind thoughts her way, please!

- :: -- :: -- :: -

Pickles. I have for long has these lines from a book in my head: "I got myself in and I'll get myself out." I do not think I did justice to my idea ... but then again aren't plans always bigger, better, more ...
So I present:

The troublemaker's anthem.
I get in a pickle as often as not
I get into trouble, yes that is my lot.
I don't want to do it
I want to be good,
To help just a bit
To lighten the mood.
That they'll find me out, I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

When things they go wonky they just call my name
"Don't try to explain now, excuses are lame"
I did a good deed,
At least as I think
Where I saw the need,
But they say I stink
That they'll just blame me, I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

I got in a jam now so many a time
The mess and the trouble, the hot spot is mine.
And when I defend
my righteous deed,
they say I should mend
my ways and my feet.
That they'll find my faults I know without doubt
But I got myself in and I'll get myself out.

 - - - - - -

Next Monday: Giving Thanks!

Catching up

Words for Wednesday are found on Messymimis Meanderings every Wednesday in November. Today we were given:
bear - debt  - gap  - witness - describe  - reaction
     and / or one of these archaic/semi-archaic words
anon (at once)  - forsooth (in truth; indeed) - wood mad (insane; wild)

- - 💨 - -

Also today is the first day with the prompts Lesson, Know where I have been for Zip through Autumn*)
Very fitting, as I have been taught many lessons last weekend, and of course I know where I've been.

- - 💨 - -

Bear with me for a long post. We met in a big room Friday morning. Then we hung stuff, draped stuff, climbed ladders, carried, pulled, wrote, talked, drank tea, asked for and gave help, Anon the doors to the exhibition were opened - we had to leave one of them open, as it locked itself when it was closed, leaving an unwanted gap in the stream of visitors.
And we witnessed the kindness of our local politician who gave the opening speech.

- - 💨 - -

The next two days we were busy describing, explaining and showing off weaving, paper folding, spinning, woodturning, knitting, felting, plant dyeing bobbin lace ... to curious visitors and to guild members. I was taught how to do reverse crochet.

- - 💨 - -

Now I'm at home again and the reaction is setting in, I'm feeling a bit woozy, starting to do many things, but not being done with any of them. I'll land again, and return to Susan's story, to visiting blogs and commenting; but it might take a couple of days yet.

- - 💨 - -

*)
Zip through Autumn:
Here's a list of dates and prompts. So if you care to join, get on board.

Sept 21- 27 ~  Zero excuses, Yearn to
Sept 28- Oct 4 ~ Xenodochy in blogging, Why blog
Oct 5- Oct 11 ~  Variety, Unique to my blog
Oct 12- Oct 18 ~ Ten-year plan, SMART goals
Oct 19- Oct 25 ~ Recommend, Questions for visitors
Oct 26- Nov 1 ~ Priorities, Open
Nov 2- Nov 7 ~ Never blog this, Motivating
Nov 9- Nov 15 ~ Lesson, Know where I've been
Nov 16- Nov 22 ~ Joy and Job in blogging, Ideas
Nov 23- Nov 29 ~ Happy Habits, Goal of your blog for remaining 2022
Nov 30- Dec 6 ~ Fortitude, Easy tips
Dec 7- Dec  13~ Dare, Chance
Dec 14- Dec 20 ~ Balance, Achievements in 2022

Blogger!

Someone at the Blogger Help Community helped me getting my sidebars back.
Now EC is telling us she ccannot comment on blogs with embedded comments, and other commenting they can't either. I will change my comment form to the not-embedded one; even if I do not like pop-up commenting, I like no comments even less. Hope this helps.


Normal MotherOwl blogging soon to resume, just now feathers are ruffled and cleaning and putting away have to be done after the exhibition.

Poetry Monday :: Oatmeal

It's Poetry Monday.  Diane - who has taken over the hosting of  this challenge - has given us a topic; and the topic is Oatmeal. I do not eat oatmeal raw, I like it with milk, sugar and raisins, but I can't eat lactose, and lactose free milk just tastes odd. But oatmeal is a kitchen staple in the Owlery because:

Oatmeal is the very best,
when mixed with eggs and lemon zest
some sugar, flour and spices too,
Then one banana, maybe two.
Into the oven in a mould
for half an hour ... oh we lust.
we cannot wait till it turns cold
but eat it to the very crust.

Yes we love banana cake with lots of oatmeal in it.

 - - - - -

Next Mondays topic: Pickles.

Sære ting på Bloggen :: Strange, New Blogger

Nu er indholdet af mine sidepaneler væk, men kun på hovedsiden. Gad vide, hvad der lige sker her? Og gad vide om og hvornår det mon bliver repareret.

The contents of my side panels have gone missing, but only on the main page; selecting one of the sub pages brings it back nice and fine, so it is there somewhere. I wonder when and if this will be fixed.

En lille pause -- A small Break

Kære læsere!
Fredag, lørdag og søndag holder den husflidsforening, jeg er medlem af, sin to-årige udstilling. Derfor holder Uglemors blog lige en lille pause. Jeg er tilbage mandag eller tirsdag.

Dear readers!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday MotherOwl will be a small cog in the bi-annual exhibition in our Crafters' Guild. For this reason a small blogging break. Normal service to be resumed Monday or Tuesday.

The Long Saturday 6 & IWSG

Oops, I was too busy describing and explaining to use the last of the Words, that appeared on River's blog last Wednesday and were:

Study
Exercise
Gnome
Cagier
Fountain
Super
Enigma
Sludge

Those last four will either be used with the new set tomorrow or not at all.
Because this is what went on in the kitchen:

While they ate, Nora, Markus, Anders and Helgi told about their visit to the kitchen.
"We went down to the kitchen," Nora said, "and it was filled with smoke."
"Nice smoke," Anders added. "It made me feel totally hungry. And then we looked for Heidi or Lis or Tage, but we could not find them."
"No, they were not in the kitchen at all," Markus said, "but there were these here Gnomes. They were small, even shorter than Helgi."
"Yes, Even shorter than me, and the lady-gnomes had long hair in beautiful braids." Helgi said.
"How did they dress?" My asked.
"Old-fashioned like," Nora said, "colourful skirts, and petticoats, like for our school theatre."
"Yes that's right, just like as for our theatre!" Markus said, "And the male ones were dressed in short trousers and long stockings, And ... what's the word ... waistcoats?"
Like jackets with buttons and no sleeves?" Estrid asked and Markus nodded energetically having taken a large bite of his bun, he chewed frantically and swallowed. "But boy, can they cook!"
My looked out of the window, lost in thoughts, then she returned to the present: "They are not Gnomes," she said in a dreaming voice, as if still lost in the past. "I dare bet that they are Nisser," she said. "Finnbogi must have found them at last. At Unicorn Farm, we had Nisser cooking for us, It was the best food ever, and they were small, childsized, but grown ups. And some of them were stuffy. If you did not treat them with due respect, mainly the older ones, you were served unpalatable food and drink."
"Whew, I'm happy we remembered our good manners then," Nora said. "We remembered to say 'Please', and 'Thank you', all the magic words."
My started laughing. "Magic words indeed," she said. "Nisser are cagier with their cooking secrets, and more particular of how they are spoken to, than any person I ever knew. I dare bet some will not be happy with their lunch today."

*** 

They were almost done eating, and sat nibbling at the delicious buns when Anna returned with Helge.
"Hello Anna, And nice to see you, Helge," My said standing up. She shook Helge's hand and looked at him. "You have grown," she said matter of fact,
Helge smiled tentatively at My, "I'm pleased to be here, pleased to be able to help and generally finding the world a better place right now. And I'm even more pleased to see that you have something nice to eat, Knud showed me around, and as we reached the kitchen, that's where Anna found us and abducted me. We were surprised to not find Heidi, Lis and Tage there with their family doing the cooking. Instead some Nisser had taken over - and not all visitors were happy over what they found in baskets and jugs."
"Sit down and eat some of these delicacies before we begin," My said. "Preparing for hard work is best done by eating and talking! You eat, I do the talking."

- - - - - - - - - -

November 2 question - November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

My answer: I have tried twice. Never enrolled and all that jazz. The first time around it was a personal sort of challenge by Sue Elvis November: 30 days - 30 blogposts. I tried and failed, as documented here.
In November 2019, I wrote a lot of chapters of my mock autobiography starting here, and ending with a sum up here. After this I swore never to participate again. It was not fun, as I prefer to write in lumps and not every day for a month. Doing different things is meat and drink to my sanity, and I am a staunch adherer of the Spiral approach principle which I try to define here, I just copy / paste myself from an old post:

One of the great lies of our time is that you can do only one thing well. While this might be true if you want to win Olympic gold medals, play in the royal philharmonic orchestra or some such feat of strength, it does not automatically hold true for us normal human beings.
     If it did, it would mean, that all of us were meant to do one thing at the elite level. Or that each of us could master one thing only.
     MotherOwl argues that most people would be happier and less bothered by problems if they spread out their interests instead of trying to become a master of one subject - in older days they called such people monomaniacs.

Up until about 50 years ago man was a Jack of all trades. In a farming society, multi-skilled people were the norm, not the exception.

A good housewife should be able to:
- cook and make do with what she had, stretching the food to last through winter.
- milk the cows, make yoghurt and cheese and churn butter.
- make candles and lamps from lard and beeswax (the bees were the woman's domain)
- make clothing, bedclothes etc. from sheep's wool / flax /nettles from raw materials over spinning, weaving, dyeing and sewing.
- make, bread for daily consumption and cakes for holidays.
- brew beer (maybe also distilling spirits)
- care for the sick, using common medical and herbal knowledge.
- wash and dress the deceased for burial.
- harvest and store seeds, herbs and spices
- teach the children their ABC
- take care of and slaugther small livestock, e.g. poultry. 

The husband took care of:
- field work, including seed conservation
- large livestock especially the horses and their diseases
- woodwork and leatherworking
- tools and simple smithing.
- fences and hedges.
- carpenters and thatching, harvesting of reed and straw.
- Religious teaching of the household.

And even if you had a fixed function, smith, priest, miller, tailor etc. you still at least had a big garden and some small animals.
Of course you can not - or only partially - live like pioneers and farmers today but MotherOwl is very much in favour of following the seasons with their variation of things to be done.
Of course, my spiral approach principle follows naturally from doing this.